KARACHI: Stocks continued to decline on Tuesday with the KSE-100 index slashing another 193.27 points (0.58 per cent) to close at 33,191.46, recording a cumulative loss of 601 points in the last three sessions.

Traded volume declined to 132 million shares from 133.6m, while value increased to Rs6.5 billion from Rs5.2bn a day ago, as second-tier stocks replaced the lowest priced scrips as volume leaders.

Foreign investors bought stocks worth $1.61m, despite the slump in Asian bourses amid persistent fears over the world’s second largest economy.

Oil stocks remained under pressure amid volatile global crude prices. POL and PPL turned easy by 0.9pc and 0.2pc respectively.

OGDCL declined 1.2pc despite reports of its new hydrocarbon discovery from exploratory well Aradin-I.

The government’s decision to subsidise urea prices was ignored by market due to weak sentiments. FFC, EFERT and FATIMA ended lower.

Dealers on sales desk at Global Securities stated that investors took cautious stance over the Fed decision regarding interest rates. Non-availability of funds for leverage positions coupled with uncertain political situation also kept investors quiet.

Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global stated that cherry-picking was witnessed in cements where Lucky Cement closed slightly positive, while the overall sector remained depressed.

Dealers at brokerage Sunrise Capital observed that the bears tightened their grip over concerns of non-availability of gas to industrial sector coupled with declining oil prices and fall in the global markets.

The technology and communication sector was in the spotlight with trading seen in over 21m shares, followed by cements 17.9m and fertilisers 12.9m shares.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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